Examine Ways in Which the Following Account of Tragic Agency Agrees, or Disagree, with Contemporary Understandings of Social Life and Personal Responsibility.
- Submitted by: mimi4040
- Views: 88
- Category: Politics: Philosophy
- Date Submitted: 05/09/2016 06:07 AM
- Pages: 5
- Report this Essay
Tragedy, more than a mere description for someone else’s misfortune it could also be interpreted as an ‘emergency call’ in our society for kindness and pity towards those few who could not avoid their drastic fate.One of the most though study on the subject is The Poetics, by Aristotle.
However the elements given on his thesis might lack some very important psychological aspects of our society and how we perceive the importance of tragic events in other people’s lives. On this essay I will try to contrast what is missing, where and how, those elements can be applied to modern days.
Is not very hard, to identify from his texts in the Poetics how Aristotle is linking tragedy reproduced by ‘imitation’ of actions of life with human emotion. And how this can interfere in our deep psychological understanding of pain and fear indirectly related to ourselves.What Aristotle was really trying to say by his explanation of a perfect tragic play? And how this could influence our attitude towards others and connect to their pain? To better understand this study I will try to link these different agents of tragedy, contrasting with our actual society.
Pain,Pity, fear and pleasure
What is the importance that Aristotle though, by bringing those emotions of fear and pity very close to our reality, but without necessarily affecting our lives? Mainly Aristotle believed that by experiencing tragedy as a spectator those feelings of pain and fear imitated through actions of life would related to some sort of ‘pleasure’. But not pleasure because we feel happy by watching someones misfortune, but because those misfortunes are not ‘ours’, yet it could be and the fear that it could be, realises adrenaline while watching tragic events. This can makes us relate to it and it also gives us a feeling of relief. Or better saying, pleasure is felt by the absence of real pain and fear. Perhaps not the same sort of relief, which he refers to when talking about catharsis, but relief...
However the elements given on his thesis might lack some very important psychological aspects of our society and how we perceive the importance of tragic events in other people’s lives. On this essay I will try to contrast what is missing, where and how, those elements can be applied to modern days.
Is not very hard, to identify from his texts in the Poetics how Aristotle is linking tragedy reproduced by ‘imitation’ of actions of life with human emotion. And how this can interfere in our deep psychological understanding of pain and fear indirectly related to ourselves.What Aristotle was really trying to say by his explanation of a perfect tragic play? And how this could influence our attitude towards others and connect to their pain? To better understand this study I will try to link these different agents of tragedy, contrasting with our actual society.
Pain,Pity, fear and pleasure
What is the importance that Aristotle though, by bringing those emotions of fear and pity very close to our reality, but without necessarily affecting our lives? Mainly Aristotle believed that by experiencing tragedy as a spectator those feelings of pain and fear imitated through actions of life would related to some sort of ‘pleasure’. But not pleasure because we feel happy by watching someones misfortune, but because those misfortunes are not ‘ours’, yet it could be and the fear that it could be, realises adrenaline while watching tragic events. This can makes us relate to it and it also gives us a feeling of relief. Or better saying, pleasure is felt by the absence of real pain and fear. Perhaps not the same sort of relief, which he refers to when talking about catharsis, but relief...